F

FAB		computer-chip FABrication plant.
FAC		File Access Code.
FAM             Fuzzy Associative Map.
FAMOS		Floating gate Avalanche Metal-Oxide Semiconductor.
FAP		File Access Protocol.
FAPI		Family Application Program Interface.
FAQ		Frequently Asked Question.
FARNET		Federation of American Research NETworks.
FAST            Forecasting and Assessment in Science and Technology.
FAT             File Allocation Table. A data structure on disk that records
                which clusters are free, which are unusable, and which have
                been allocated.  The clusters occupied by a file are linked
                into a list in the file allocation table, allowing DOS to
                find the contents of the file.
FAX             Facsimile.
.FAX      	FAX. File name extension.
FC/AL		Fiber Channel/Arbitrated Loop.
FCB             File Control Block. A data record in the calling program's
                address space which is used by DOS 1.x functions to record
                the state of an open file.
FCC             Federal Communications Commission.
FCCSET		Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and 
		Technology.
FCFS            First Come, First Serve. In its strictest interpretation,
                this nonpreemptive discipline runs a process from start to
                finish, choosing processes in the order of their creation.
FCI		Flux Changes per Inch.
FCONSOLE        virtual File server CONSOLE. The FCONSOLE is an advanced
                NetWare utility designed to allow remote execution of
                file-server console commands from any workstation on the
                network.
FCP             File Control Processor.
FCS             Fiber Channel Standard.
FCS             Frame Check Sequence. A general term given to the additional 
                bits appended to a transmitted frame or message by the source 
                to enable the receiver to detect possible transmission errors.
FD		Floppy Disk.
FD		Floppy Drive.
FD		Full Duplex.
FDC		Floppy Disk Controller.
FDDI		Fiber Digital Device Interface.
FDDI            Fiber Distributed Data Interface. An optical fibre-based ring 
                network that can be used as a high-speed LAN or MAN. It 
                provides a user bit rate of 100 Mbps and uses a control token 
                medium access control method.
FDISK		Fixed DISK.
FDM             Frequency Division Multiplexing. The FDM process creates a
                series of channels, each with its lower and upper limit
                frequency.
FDM             Functional Data Model. FDMs use the cconcept of a mathematical
                function as their fundamental modeling construct. Any request
                for information can be visualized as a function call with
                certain arguments, and the function returns the required
                information.
FDX             Full DupleX.
FE              Format Effector.
FED		Field-Emitter Display.
FEFO		First-Ended, First-Out.
FEP             Front-End Processor. A communications device used for entry
                into a computer system. The FEP typically provides either or
                both asynchronous or synchronous ports for the system.
FEPI		Front End Programming Interface.
FESDK		Far East Software Development Kit.
FET             Field-Effect Transistor. Application of a voltage to the gate
                electrode allows a thin layer of electrons to flow from the
                source to the drain in the silicon channel just below the
                gate. Lowering the gate voltage blocks this flow of current.
FF		Flip-Flop.
FF		Form Feed.
FFS             Fast File System.
FFST		First Failure Support Technology.
FFT		Fast Fourier Transform.
FFT		Final Form Text.
FGHC            Flat Guarded Horn Clauses.
FID             Field IDentifier.
FIF		Fractal Image Format.
FIFO            First-In, First-Out storage policy. A policy for certain
                memory-accessing operations that retrieves the item stored
                for the longest time; the storage policy of a queue.
FILO		First-In, Last-Out.
FIP		FIle Processor buffering.
FIPS		Federal Information Processing Standard.
FIPS PUBS	Federal Information Processing Standards PUBlicationS.
FIR		Finite Impulse Response.
FIX		Federal Internet eXchange.
FK              Foreign Key.
FL              With reference to the CDC 6600, the number of words the
                operating system permits the program to access. The
                memory-protection hardware generates an exception on any
                attempt by a program to read or write to an address that
                exceeds the field-length bounds.
FL              Field-Length Register. A special register within the CDC 6600 
                memory-protection hardware that holds the field length of the 
                memory partition that the currently executing program may 
                access.
FLC		Ferro-electric Liquid Crystal.
FLD		FieLD.
FLL		FoxPro Link Library.
FLOPS		FLoating Point Operations Per Second.
FM              Frequency Modulation. A method of encoding data as a series 
                of magnetic flux reversals on disk or tape, commonly known as 
                single-density recording.  In frequency modulation, a series
                of clock pulses are written at regular intervals, with one 
                data bit for each clock pulse.  See also MFM, RLL.
FMS		Forms Management System.
FMT		ForMaT.
FNT		FoNT.
FOCUS		Forum Of Control data USers
FOG		First Osborne Group.
FOIRL		Fiber Optic Inter Repeater Link.
.FON		FONt. File name extension.
.FON		Phone. File name extension.
.FON		Phone Directory. File name extension.
.FOR		FORtran source code. File name extension.
FORTRAN         FORmula TRANslator.
FOSE		Federal Office Systems Exposition.
FOSI		Format Option Specification Instance.
FOSSIL          Fido/Opus/Seadog Standard Interface Layer. A standardized API
                for performing serial I/O, originally used by the Fido and
                Opus bulletin-board software and Seadog bulletin-board
                mailer, but now in wider use.
FP              Functional Programming.
FPC		Floating Point Calculation.
FPGA		Field Programmable Gate Array. From Xilinx.
FPI             Family Programming Interface.
FPLA            Field Programmable Logic Array.
FPM             First Page Mode.
FPP		Fixed Path Protocol.
FPP		Floating Point Processor.
FPS		Favorite Picture Selection.
FPS		Frames Per Second.
FPS/T           Floating Point Systems T. The nodes in the FPS/T n-cube
                design are 64-bit floating-point computer built around the
                Inmos Transputer, a special 32-bit CMOS microprocessor whose
                instruction set is closely matched to the Occam language.
FPSNW           File and Print Service for NetWare.
FPT             Forced Perfect Termination.
FPU		Floating Point Unit.
FQDN		Fully Qualified Domain Name.
FQL             Functional Query Language.
FRA             Frame Relay Adapter.
FRAD            Frame Relay Access Device.
FRAG		FRAGment.
FRAG		FRAGmentation.
FRAM            Ferroelectric Random Access Memory.
FRC             Functional Redundancy Check.
FRED		FRame EDitor.
FRED		FRont-End to Dish.
FRPI		Flux Reversals Per Inch.
FS              File Separator.
FSD		File System Driver.
FSE		Full Screen Editor.
FSF		Free Software Foundation.
FSK             Frequency Shift Keying. FSK provides the originate and answer
                modes for Bell-103 modems.
FSN		Full Service Network.
FSP		File Service Protocol.
FSR		Free System Resources.
FST		Flat Square Tube monitor.
F/T		Full Time.
FTAM            File Transfer Access and Management. A protocol entity 
                forming part of the application layer. It enables user 
                application processes to manage and access a (distributed) 
                file system.
FTAM		File Transfer and Access Method.
FTM		Flat Tension Mask.
FTP             File Transfer Protocol.  The standard protocol for copying
                files from one machine to another on a TCP/IP (Internet)
                network.  Also the program of the same name with which a user
                may transfer files.
FTPD		File Transfer Protocol Daemon.
FTS		Federal Telecommunication System.
FUD             Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
FUI		File Update Information.
FUNC		FUNCtion.
FVT		Full Video Translation.
FX              Field eXchange.
FX              Foreign eXchange.
FYI		For Your Information.


G

GA        	General Availability.
GAAP      	Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
GaAs            Gallium Arsenide. GaAs is a semiconductor with double the
                electron mobility of silicon.
GAL       	Generic Array Logic.
GAM             Graphic Access Method.
GAPI      	Gateway Application Programming Interface.
Gb        	GigaBit (1,000 megabits). One Billion Bits of Information.
GB		GigaByte (1,000 megabytes). One Billion Characters of 
		Information.
GCL             Global Commerce Link.
GCR		Group Code Recording.
GDA		Global Data Area.
GDDM      	Graphics Data Display Manager.
GDI             Graphical Device Interface.
GDLC      	Generic Data Link Control.
GDP       	Graphic Draw Primitive.
GDT       	Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.
GDT          	Global Descriptor Table.
GECOS     	General Electric Comprehensive Operating System.
GEF             Graphics Exchange Format.
GEIS      	General Electric Information Service company.
GEM       	Graphics Environment Manager.
GENESIS         GEneral NEural SImulation System.
GENIE     	General Electric Network for Information Exchange.
GEOS      	Graphic Environment Operating System.
GET       	Get Execute Trigger.
GF11            GF11 is a modified SIMD parallel computer with 566 PEs
                interconnected via a nonblocking Benes network. Each
                processor is capable of 20 (32-bit) MFLOPS (single precision)
                and has space for 2 MBytes of memory, giving the total
                machine a peak of 11.4 GFlops and 1.14 GBytes of memory.(GF11)
GFLOPS          Giga (billions) of FLoating-point Operations Per Second.
GGP       	Gateway-Gateway Protocol.
GHZ       	GigaHertZ.
.GIF            Graphics Interchange Format. Compuserve created and maintains
                this machine-independent standard format for distributing
                graphics images. All files saved i this format end with the
                .GIF extension.
GIGO      	Garbage In, Garbage Out.
GIS             Geographic Information System. The representation of objects
                in space and the processing of queries on those objects are
                specific areas of investigation that are being heavily
                pursued by the developers of GISs.
GIS		Global Information Solutions.
GIX    		Global Internet eXchange.
GKS       	Graphical Kernel System.
G/L       	General Ledger.
GLIS      	Global Land Information System.
GLM       	General Linear Models.
GLOBE     	Global Learning by Observations to Benefit the Environment.
.GLY      	GLossarY. File name extension.
GLYPNIR         In Norse mythology, GLYPNIR is a magic chain made of the
                noise of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of
                stones, the breath of fish, the sensibilities of bears, and
                the spittle of birds. The gods used it to bind the Fenris
                wolf that would otherwise devour the world.
                It is a block-oriented, ALGOL-like language augmented with
                64-word superwords, or swords, and control statements like
                FOR ALL. It presented ILLIAC IV as a set of PEs operating
                simultaneously. Slotnick writes that for ten years GLYPNIR
                was the only working ILLIAC IV higher-level language.
GM              Global Memory. Memory in a multiprocessor system that is
                common to all processors.
GM-MIMD         Global Memory Multiple Instruction stream, Multiple Data
                stream. See also GM, MIMD.
GMS       	Global Messaging Service.
GM-SIMD         Global Memory Single Instruction stream, Multiple Data
                stream. See also GM, SIMD.
GMT   		Greenwich Mean Time.
GND       	GrouND (signal/system).
GNN       	Global Network Navigator.
GNU             Gnu is Not Unix.
GOSIP           Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile.
GOV       	GOVernment. Organization Domain name.
GP        	Gas Plasma
GP	 	General Purpose.
GPF       	General Protection Fault.
GPI       	Graphics Programming Interface.
GPIB            General Purpose Interface Bus. Used by HP logic analyzers and
                other such engineering equipment.  Allows different lab
                equipment to communicate with each other (data transmission)
                and possibly be controlled remotely by external system.  A
                standard method of inter-connecting logic analyzers, data
                loggers, oscilliscopes, etc.
GPR       	General Purpose Register.
GPS             Global Positioning System.
GPSS    	General Purpose Systems Simulator.
GRE       	GRaphics Engine.
GREP      	Global Regular Expression Print.
.GRF      	GRaph. File name extension.
.GRP      	GRouP. File name extension.
GS              Group Separator.
GSM             Global Satellite Messaging.
GTL       	Gunning Transceiver Logic.
GTO       	Guide To Operations.
GUI       	Graphical User Interface.
GVT       	Global Virtual Time.
GW-BASIC  	Gee Whiz Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.
.gz       	Gnu Zip. Compressed file name extension using GNU gzip 
		compression/decompression program.
